


of desperation: chaos

by SummonerGirl7_7



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/M, Introspection, M/M, a bit OOC, all ships are only hinted at
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28759770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummonerGirl7_7/pseuds/SummonerGirl7_7
Summary: Chaos watches. Zagreus dies. Over and over again.Zagreus asks. Chaos changes the game.
Relationships: Megaera/Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game), Megaera/Zagreus (Hades Video Game), Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 114





	of desperation: chaos

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first work for this fandom. Constructive criticism is appreciated.
> 
> Based on spirderbirdo's Mortal Coil AU on tumblr.

Chaos is chaos. The end all and be all. The original, the beginning.

There are limits, of course, but no one speaks of those. All they see is power and disaster, and all Chaos sees is their fear.

Zagreus was different. Zagreus _was_.

From the beginning, Zagreus was touched by him. The bloodline of gods does not always flow in understandable ways.

(As much as the world would like to forget, Persephone was one of theirs. A daughter of entropy, _Kore_ , capable of as much violence, madness, as her kindness.

And even if not for Persephone, there was Nyx. The distance between Chaos and Night Incarnate still stung, an old wound. Nyx was beautiful potential, limitless in her glory; Chaos did not often give into such follies, but they had been proud.

Zagreus, born of one daughter and raised by another. How fitting that the boy came to these dark depths, came to _them_.)

Chaos did not take the child seriously, the first time Zagreus asked. It was more of a question than anything, a what-if.

"Perhaps … could you send me to the surface? As a mortal?"

There. There was the fear. The uncertainty.

It's sad, though Chaos has long moved beyond such feelings. Zagreus, willing to throw away everything for someone he has never met. For the chance of being wanted, loved.

Desperate, starved for affection. Hundreds of years, yet still just a child. They were all children, to Chaos. Children raising children.

The second time the boy asked, Zagreus was angry. His blood stained Chaos's domain, his fury radiating off him with a heat beyond intense.

He looked like his father. Typical.

"You could make me mortal," Zagreus all but spat. "Again and again, all I do is die. There is nothing here for me. But you, you could-"

And it was here that Chaos laughed. Laughed and laughed and laughed.

That," Chaos said, "would be taking the easy way. Did you not swear to reach the surface on your own, to fight your way out?"

Zagreus scowled, but the determination was there.

The underworld is cold, cruel. That does not mean there is no love, but what is love if one cannot see it? Zagreus is alone because he believes it so, unaware of the eyes that watch him from the shadows, of the way the darkness cradles him so.

The third time, Zagreus bled. Bled his life away on the floor, a red river flowing from every wound. He was to return to the Styx and return soon.

"Please," Zagreus said. "I have to find her."

Thousands of times, Zagreus had tried to escape. He had come close, so close to leaving, only to be stopped short.

The Styx came for him, over and over again. Zagreus had spilled more blood than entire armies, entire wars. Yet it was not enough. The surface would always be out of reach.

"Please."

Zagreus asked three times to become mortal. Once, a question. Once, a phrase. And once, the dying wish of one who has nothing to lose.

It is a simple matter. Amusing, even. But that is not why Chaos granted Zagreus's wish.

Eternity is a long time. Everything has been seen before, done before. Even then, there is fate, destiny, prophecy. There is repetition and the growing dullness of forever.

Chaos had not truly moved beyond emotion. For the first time in millennia, Chaos felt. Sentimentality. Fondness. Affection. None of those was the right word.

Chaos knew what they were feeling.

Hope. How ironic. Immortals do not hope. There is no point. Things are or they are not. Hope is useless.

… yet Zagreus hoped. He hoped and prayed and climbed and crawled and kept going. Even other gods would have quit a long time ago, yet Zagreus continued.

It made Chaos feel things. Chaos did not know how to control it, control this change within. They did not know if they wanted to control it.

The epiphany came when Zagreus closed his eyes, mere minutes from the end, from starting the cycle over and over again.

There was no need for control, categorization. They were Chaos, and Chaos has no need for rationality, reasoning.

Zagreus's body would be taken by the Styx, but not his soul. Not this time.

They were family, after all. It was but a simple request.

So, by the whims of Chaos, a new life, another chance, came to be.

-+-

Zagreus is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A god, yet not divine. A mortal, yet not truly.

Olympus is slow to change, for gods have no reason to. For so long, the sides have been drawn, the skies divided.

Zagreus is hope. Chaos knows this. The boy will not stop, not even if it takes a hundred mortal lifetimes.

Forever is a long time. Olympus needs new blood.

Who better, than the god who has bled the world over.

(In the future, the far, far off future, a young god with mismatched eyes would ask Chaos what kind of choice they gave Zagreus. Chaos would smile, for it was not a choice at all; desperation leaves no other options.)

-+-

There are many ways to kill a god. Not with swords or strikes, but on the inside.

Zagreus knew both. He knew the stab of a blade, the snap of a neck, just as he knew the shattering of a heart and the snub of a friend.

He tried. Zagreus tried and tried, but even gods have their breaking point.

On the steps of the House, on the shore of the Styx, a god's shell lays. The body bleeds and bleeds but does not die. The body does not breathe nor blink.

The House of Hades was never a kind place. When its queen left, the lights dimmed, only to be filled by the brightness of its master's son.

Now? Now even that spark is gone, and Hades is truly alone.

Zagreus is … missing? ... hurt? ... broken? … bleeding. Bleeding and bleeding and bleeding in a way that gods should never.

If the goddess Nyx were watching, if she had not been consumed in her grief the same way her friend once was (for to lose a son is a cut on the heart itself), she might have seen it. She might have come to Chaos, demanded answers.

But she did not see the flash, did not see the child born with a soul too big, too bright for his mortal form.

_For a god's soul shines, no matter the vessel._

It would take years. Painful, long years. Years that would normally mean nothing to the gods would become lifetimes of agony. Of guilt.

It would not be Mother Nyx who finds him first.

Death would stare into the face of his greatest companion and see no recognition, no love.

All he would see … was fear.

(How Zagreus returns to the Underworld, how he finds the love he so craved …

It is another story entirely.)

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't published any fanfiction in years. I used to only use this account for reading. (If anyone recognizes my writing style, I might scream.)
> 
> anyway, Chaos is hard to get a grip on lol. Tried my best, but I'm kind of rusty. Sorry (^_^)
> 
> this is based on spiderbirdo's super awesome Mortal Coil comic on tumblr! if you haven't read it, you NEED to check it out, it is soooooo good. so much angst
> 
> https://spiderbirdo.tumblr.com/post/635121164014043136/mortal-coil-next-au-where-zagreus-makes-a-deal


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